Mister Invisible
by obeytherandomness
Summary: This is based off of Miss Invisible by Marie Digby. Naruto sits under the bleachers secretly watching the man that he loves and escaping his life, but then everything starts to change. This is SasuNaru. Warning: There is child abuse in this story.
1. author's note

This is the same Author's Note that is on every one of my other songfics, so, if you've already read it, there is no need to read it again.

This is a songfic, but it can be read like a normal story. If you have any songs that you would like to request that I do please feel free to tell me. I can't promise that I will do that song, but I will at least look at doing it.

This note is just to explain how the story works so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

I have actually gotten in trouble for posting a songfic before and I don't want to get in trouble again so I decided to do songfics a different way. Every chapter is based on a line of the song so the length of the story depends on the length of the song. I will try to name the chapter in a way that lets you know what line I'm on, but I won't put the exact words up.

Because the chapters are based on one line, they will fluctuate in length. They can be short at some points but I promise not to make them too short.

Thank you for reading. I hope you like this story. Please Read and Review.


	2. sit under the bleachers

This is based on the song Miss Invisible by Marie Digby. I don't own the song or Naruto

* * *

Naruto sighed as he crouched under the bleachers after school. He was almost caught on his way here. One of the preps had seen him walk out of the school and had decided to follow him, probably to play some sort of prank or to insult him, and he was only just barely able to lose her before he ducked under the bleachers.

Looking around one more time to make sure that no one had followed him, Naruto pulled out a blanket. It was a ratty old thing that was caked with dirt and mud on the other side, but at least it provided a good enough place for Naruto to sit while he watched _him. _The main quarterback of the football team. The star of the school. The apple of everyone's eye. The most famous person in the entire school. Sasuke Uchiha. The man that Naruto had a crush on. The man that Naruto hid under the bleachers just to hope to get a glimpse of him playing. The man that would never love Naruto back. _Him._

Today Naruto was lucky. He was able to find a large enough spot that he could see a good part of the field and the area where the football members rested for break. He could see the football team getting in position to begin playing. Sasuke was crouching down and yelling out the plays to the people who were on his team. Then there was the snap and Sasuke threw the ball to one of the team members who had been left unprotected and was able to run a good few yards before the defense finally got him down. Naruto didn't understand football that well, but he knew enough to know that that was a good play.

He continued to watch the team play for a while until, finally, the coach called for them to have a ten-minute break. The defense had made a couple of good plays, but it was mostly the offense, with the help of Sasuke, who made all of the good moves. The team jogged over to the bench where all of their water bottles and wet towels were waiting for them. Sasuke was the first one to make it to the bench and pull his helmet off. He looked around at the bleachers, as he always did, until he found a certain face in the audience that made him smile. Sometimes Naruto liked to convince himself that Sasuke was smiling at him because whoever Sasuke was looking for always seemed to be in his general area, but he knew that could never be the case.

"Who are you always looking for Sasuke?" Kiba asked as he threw an arm around everyone's favorite quarterback. Naruto wanted to be Kiba at that moment just so that he could touch Sasuke.

Sasuke's smile fell from his face as he shrugged Kiba's arm off of him. "No one," he growled.

"Oh come on man," Kiba laughed. "You can tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone."

"That's a lie," Sasuke said.

"So you admit that you were looking for someone," Kiba whooped at his success in finding out this slight bit of information about Sasuke. Naruto couldn't blame him. Of what he had seen, Sasuke didn't really give anything of himself away to anyone. Friend or not. "Who is it man? You gotta tell me now."

"No," Sasuke growled. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"Come on," Kiba continued. "Just give me a hint. I want to know who is that perfect woman that can actually get your ice heart to melt." Naruto couldn't deny that he wanted to know the same thing, but at the same time he didn't want to. If he heard who Sasuke was in love with, then maybe he would be able to get over the man, but if he heard and wasn't able to get over him then he didn't want to feel that pain.

"It's none of your business," Sasuke growled. "Now leave me alone."

"No way man," said Kiba. "Even if you don't tell me who it is I will find out sooner or later."

"Stay out of my business," Sasuke said.

"I don't feel like it," Kiba answered, "and if you don't tell me then I will have to resort to methods that you won't like."

"There is no girl," Sasuke muttered.

"Fine," Kiba smirked. "Since you won't tell me…" He turned to the stands and yelled out, "Hey girls, it seems that Sasuke has a crush on one of you!"

Every girl on the stands claimed the love as their own and a fight began. Every girl was joining in with the fight and it got to the point that the bleachers shook and Naruto didn't feel safe underneath them. If there was one thing that he didn't like about being under the bleachers it was this. The bleachers were cheap and they seemed like they would break at any moment with the amount of pressure it was subjected to during games. They would break and fall right on top of Naruto. That was not how Naruto wanted to die. Fearing for his safety under the shaking bleachers, Naruto gathered his blanket into his arms, stuffed it into his bag and ran out from under the bleachers hoping that no one would see him go.


	3. eating alone

The next day Naruto returned to the school early. Sasuke wasn't playing football, but there was a little known fact that he liked to run the track in the mornings. Naruto had only discovered this fact when he came to school early one day to escape his abusive older brother. Ever since then, Naruto came to school early so that he could watch Sasuke from his seat in his classroom.

This day was different though. Naruto wasn't able to go straight to his seat in the classroom because he had to cover a particularly dark black eye. He wouldn't be able to hide it completely, but at least he would be able to make it look a little less painful. When he was done with that he went to his classroom thinking that he would be the only one there. He heard a scraping of a chair moving quickly when he walked into the room and looked over to see Sasuke in his school uniform staring at him. He was sweating and he was a little short of breath, but Naruto just attributed that to his running only a few moments earlier.

"I'm sorry," Naruto whispered. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You didn't," Sasuke said quickly. "What happened to your eye?"

Naruto winced. If there was one person that he didn't want to lie to, it was Sasuke, but he couldn't afford anyone finding out about his brother. It's not like the man was a bad person. It was always Naruto's fault when Kyuubi decided that he needed to be punished. He always did something wrong. The particular bruise that Sasuke was referring to was for burning the dinner from the night before. He didn't want Sasuke to know that he was such a failure. "I got into a fight," he said quietly without looking at Sasuke.

"Dobe," Sasuke growled.

Naruto looked at the floor as he walked to his seat without answering Sasuke. He couldn't come up with a comeback. Not with Sasuke being the one that was making fun of him.

* * *

The day went by relatively quickly until it was finally time for lunch. Everyone rushed out of the room to go to the cafeteria where they would find their food and their best friends to talk to, but Naruto stayed behind and waited. It didn't really matter anyway. He was in no hurry to sit by himself again while he was eating. He wasn't really looking forward to the food that he was going to have to eat either. His brother had forced him to eat all of the burnt dinner last night, but he was unable to because it was two meals so he just packed it for his lunch.

Naruto walked into the atrium where he usually sat. He had been lucky enough to get a table near Sasuke's at the beginning of the year and now no one dared to sit at his table. It was labeled the loser table as soon as he sat at it. In fact, a lot of the cool kids at the table next to him wanted to move, but Sasuke didn't and no one would ever dare abandon Sasuke because he was the coolest person alive. Unfortunately, the cool kids had decided to play a prank on him and his table was covered in different food products. He sighed and moved to stand against the wall while he ate. The teachers wouldn't care. He actually wound up standing against the wall most of the time while he ate anyway. At least the teachers had finally realized that he wasn't the one making the mess and they stopped making him clean it up. Nowadays they always seemed to find the culprit halfway through lunch and that person would be forced to stay behind after lunch and clean up whatever mess was left behind.

He heard the snickering voices of the kids at the cool table laugh at him. He had to wonder what he did that was so worthy of their laughter this time. He didn't have to wonder long. "Did your mommy make that for you?" one of them laughed.

Naruto didn't answer. He just continued to eat the horrible food that he had made the day before.

"Your mom must be a really horrible cook," said another cool kid.

"Or she just doesn't care about him," laughed another.

"I bet she's drunk all the time," another whispered loud enough so that Naruto could hear.

"No," another smirked. "I bet she just hates him."

"I don't see how any of that is funny," Sasuke said, but Naruto never heard him because he had already thrown away the burnt food, knowing full well that Kyuubi would probably find out and beat him for it later, and left the atrium to go wait outside his next class.


	4. smiles

Naruto smiled throughout the rest of his classes. He had to. It was the only thing that was stopping the tears that he knew were building up behind his eyes from falling. He couldn't let them know how much their words affected him. If they knew then they would continue to say horrible things about his mother. He hated when they said things like that when they didn't know anything about his mother. They didn't know that she was dead. The only thing that they knew was that they had never seen her before. They didn't know her so they couldn't know any better, but he still didn't want them talking about her like that. Hopefully they would forget about it and move on to some other topic to make fun of him about soon.

* * *

With the smile still intact, Naruto ran straight for the bleachers after school. He didn't want to have to deal with anyone and, even without Sasuke practicing out on the football field, the bleachers were his safe haven. No one ever looked down there for him. Probably because they were all afraid of all the bugs that made their home under the bleachers. Naruto didn't mind them. As long as the bugs didn't touch him, which they generally didn't because he made sure to stay away from any of their homes, they didn't bother him. There were plenty of bugs that made residence in his run-down home after all.

Today was another practice day for Sasuke. The actual games were about to start so pretty much every day was. Naruto took a seat in one of the less crowded areas of the bleachers. Apparently a lot of girls had heard about what had happened the day before and they wanted to be the one that Sasuke was in love with so they came to sit in the bleachers where his supposed lover was and they all just so happened to want to sit in the first rows so that Naruto couldn't see. Naruto didn't even get a good look at the benches, let alone the actual field, but he remained where he was just in case he could see Sasuke.

Naruto closed his eyes and listened to Sasuke's voice rise above everyone nearby so that his team members could hear him. Naruto didn't understand a word of it, which he supposed was good because the defense isn't supposed to know what the offense is saying, but he liked to hear Sasuke's voice. It was smooth and, even though he spent a lot of time yelling, it seemed to be completely undamaged by any sort of risen voice. Naruto loved to listen to Sasuke as though it were his favorite song.

A ten-minute break was called and Naruto opened his eyes to hopefully catch a glimpse of Sasuke near the benches. At first he had no luck, but, as Sasuke scanned the crowd for his special someone, Naruto thought there eyes met. For a moment Naruto thought that Sasuke's eyes looked somewhat worried, but there was no way that was possible. Sasuke was the first to look away because Kiba came up to him.

"Is your perfect girl here?" Kiba asked as he ran up next to Sasuke to scan the crowd as well. Naruto retreated slightly into the bleachers so that he wouldn't be seen. There was no way anyone could see him from the benches, but he would rather be safe then sorry. He didn't want Sasuke to find out that he had been spying on him from under the bleachers. He would think Naruto was a complete freak that was stalking him.

"That's none of your business," Sasuke growled.

"That means yes," Kiba responded. "Come on man. Tell me who it is."

"No," Sasuke growled.

"Then I will just have to start guessing. Does she have black hair?"

"No," Sasuke rubbed his forehead to try to get the stress that was taking over his body from the last few days to subside.

"What about red hair?" Kiba asked.

"No."

"Brown?"

"No."

"Blonde?"

"Just shut up Kiba," Sasuke hissed.

"Sasuke's mystery woman has blonde hair," Kiba yelled to the audience resting on the bleachers. Many girls hissed and some bragged about their blonde locks. It got so bad that some of the girls began to try to take the blonde hair from the others and Naruto was forced to retreat away from the bleachers again.


	5. something he's hiding

Naruto sighed as he sat in his first period of the day. It was math. Aka his worst subject. He never understood practically anything that the teacher said during his lessons. He always explained it in such a complicated way and Naruto could never follow him. If he could just get a tutor, then he would probably be able to understand at least the fundamentals of the subject, but no one would ever want to tutor him. At one time he had fantasized about asking Sasuke to tutor him, but that idea was squashed immediately because someone like Sasuke would never want to hangout with someone like Naruto.

Naruto sighed again, but this time he felt a sharp pain rip through his chest with the exhalation of breath. "Shit!" he gasped as he realized just what the pain was coming from.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" the teacher asked. He was glaring at Naruto with such hatred that you would think that Naruto had murdered his favorite cat.

"No sir," Naruto ground out as the pain continued to bother him, "but could I go to the bathroom please."

The teacher glared for a moment longer before finally relenting and Naruto ran out of the room as soon as he was given the okay.

* * *

In the bathroom, Naruto looked around to make sure that no one else was there before he turned to one of the many mirrors in the room. With a sigh, he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a bloodied bandage wrapped around his torso. It was getting harder and harder to hide the wounds that Kyuubi was inflicting upon him. This particular was for not finishing the burnt meal the day before.

Naruto slowly went to work peeling the bandages away from his torso to reveal a stab wound on the right side of his chest. It was just barely small enough that it wouldn't need to be stitched, but it was still deep enough that it was very painful to bear. Naruto had thought that it wouldn't bother him at all today because it hadn't hurt in the morning, but when he arrived at school he was forced to run from some particularly cruel bullies, which probably opened the wound again.

"Damn it," Naruto cursed as he pulled out his roll of bandages. He only barely had enough to cover the wound on his chest. He would have to buy more on his way home. He just had to hope that these ones would last until that time. They usually did if no one bothered to try to attack Naruto during the day. That almost never happened though. Someone always attacked Naruto during the day whether it was with words or with actual fists. The only thing he could hope for was that they would choose the words today.


	6. no way to relate

Naruto returned to the classroom as quietly as he could. He had already interrupted the class once and he didn't want to do it again. Especially since he was gone a little longer than a normal person would be for just going to the bathroom. Apparently he was unsuccessful.

"Nice of you to join us," said the teacher as all of the students stared at me.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your lesson," Naruto muttered as he looked at the ground so that he wouldn't have to look at all the eyes that were staring at him.

"Where have you been?" asked the teacher.

"I was in the bathroom," Naruto answered truthfully.

"Fine," said the teacher, "but if I find that you were anywhere else then I will give you a referral for skipping my class."

"I wasn't skipping your class," Naruto tried to say. "I just wasn't really feeling well."

"I don't want to hear anymore of your lame excuses Naruto," the teacher glared. "Just go back to your seat so that I can continue my lesson for those who actually appreciate it."

"Yes sir," Naruto bowed his head and walked to the back of the classroom. Everyone was snickering at him as he passed them and he sighed once more. If only he was more like Sasuke. If Sasuke left to the bathroom for a long time then the teacher would never think anything of it because Sasuke was such a good student. And if he happened to do anything that would be embarrassing for Naruto, all of the students would pretend not to notice and would instead talk about something else that Sasuke had done that was awesome.

Naruto would never be Sasuke though. He was nothing like Sasuke. Sasuke was cool and he was weird. Sasuke was strong and he was weak. Sasuke was handsome and he was ugly. Sasuke could easily relate to people and he could not. Sasuke was liked, maybe even loved, and he was hated. He could never be anything like Sasuke. It just wasn't possible. He could only be himself. His useless self. His hated self.

Sometimes he wondered how Sasuke was so good at everything when he was so horrible, but he soon realized that it was because Sasuke actually had a reason to be good. He wanted to make people proud. He wanted to make people happy. He was good because he had people to back him up and encourage him to do everything well. Naruto had none of those things. The only thing that motivated him to do better was his brother, but Kyuubi never cared about anything but himself so the only thing that Naruto was inspired to improve in was any sort of house work.

Maybe he should just quit school. It's not like he was needed or wanted there. He didn't even need to be there. The only thing that he needed to do was continue to please his brother so that Kyuubi wouldn't hurt him again. Maybe if he spent all of his time at home than he would become so good at housework that Kyuubi would no longer feel the need to teach him a lesson. It's not like anyone would miss him anyway. He didn't have any friends in this school. He could just leave and no one would even notice his absence. Well the teachers might, but that's because it's their job to note every missing student. He could totally fix that by getting Kyuubi to sign a form saying that he was resigning from his studies. Knowing him, he probably would for a price. Unfortunately, Kyuubi's prices were usually rather horrible. Last time there was a price that Naruto had to pay he was forced to sleep in the attic for a week and was only allowed enough food and water to keep him alive. He was forced to tell the teachers that he had had a very bad flu, but, of course, they didn't believe him because he didn't have a doctor's note. They thought that he was just skipping class.

Then again, maybe it was better to stay at school. It gave him time away from Kyuubi, time that he wouldn't be punished for. Besides, if Naruto left the school he wouldn't be able to see Sasuke anymore. Kyuubi probably wouldn't even let him watch the games on TV. He would much rather enjoy the four years that he had to watch Sasuke in high school before he gave himself up completely to Kyuubi when he graduated.


	7. unnoticed

Naruto was able to make it through the day without needing to change his bandages. He got new ones at the store nearby before returning to the school to settle underneath the bleachers. Today there was no practice because there was going to be a game later on that day, but the coach had asked all of his players to come to the field so that they could get a pep talk and so that they could go over all of the plays that they would probably use during the game.

Naruto was actually surprised that there were so many girls on the bleachers. He wouldn't be surprised if most of them had newly dyed blonde hair. They wanted to be Sasuke's lover so badly that they were completely ignoring the fact that Sasuke already seemed to like one specific woman. No matter how many changes they made to their appearance that would not change Sasuke's opinion of them.

"Sasuke would you pay attention," growled the coach. Naruto jumped at the sound. No one had ever really talked to Sasuke that way before. Probably because Sasuke never got distracted. "You have been very distracted for the last half hour. What is the matter with you?"

"Nothing sir," Sasuke said calmly.

"His girlfriend ain't here," Kiba said laughingly. Well there went any fantasy Naruto had of Sasuke looking for him.

"I don't have a girlfriend," Sasuke growled.

"Fine then," Kiba laughed. "Sasuke's crush ain't here."

"Well you better get yourself together before this game," growled the coach.

"Yes sir," Sasuke agreed.

"Now go wash your face," said the coach, "and I expect that when you return you will be completely focused on the game."

"Yes sir," Sasuke said before he jogged away.

Naruto saw him appear at the side of the bleachers and he sunk as far into the darkness as he could, praying that he would remain unnoticed. Sasuke looked back, but, thankfully, didn't seem to notice Naruto watching him. Naruto did notice, however, that Sasuke seemed a lot more relaxed when he came back from the bathroom.

"Is your head in the game now?" asked the coach.

"Yes sir," Sasuke said confidently.

* * *

Naruto stayed under the bleachers for the rest of the day just waiting for the game to start. Kyuubi would probably punish him for not doing his chores later on, but he wouldn't have been able to come back to the game if he had left. He used up all of his money buying the new bandages and it cost at least 5 dollars to buy a ticket to the game. He said at least 5 because sometimes, depending on if a student was running the ticket counter or not, he would get charged more than that. No one ever noticed him under the bleachers anyway. They were to busy getting ready for the game. So all's he had to do was make sure to pack something to eat while he waited. He never got bored though. The coach had this thing about not letting any of his teammates go home until after the game, and Sasuke always sat outside when the team wasn't doing anything. At one point Sasuke had sat on the bleachers near where Naruto was sitting and took out his homework. His math homework. He mumbled about how he was doing the problems the whole time and Naruto actually learned something. Not just that. He was able to finish his math homework without having to copy all of Sasuke's muttered answers.

Now the bleachers were filling up and Naruto knew that there was no way that he was possibly going to be able to see the football field through the crowd, but he continued to sit where he was anyway. He'd get in even more trouble if someone noticed him because he hadn't paid the fee to watch the football game in the first place. Naruto sighed. He still did wish that he could at least see Sasuke. It was a stupid wish. He was never able to see Sasuke during games, but he could always hear the boy. Naruto had really good hearing, which often didn't help him because he could hear the insulting whispers that the students all shot towards him, so he was able to pick up Sasuke saying words that he still couldn't quite understand on the field. He always knew when they got a touchdown because everyone would scream about how Sasuke was amazing, and he always knew when the ball had been turned over before they got a touchdown because he could hear Sasuke stomp over to the benches near the bleachers and curse or talk about something that he should have done that would have made it better. Sasuke had a habit of talking to himself during a game. No one else noticed it, but Naruto could hear every word that came out of Sasuke's mouth. It wasn't always a blessing though. Sometimes Sasuke could say some cruel things about himself and Naruto just wanted to stand up and yell at him for even thinking so poorly of himself, but then he would always just grit his teeth because he had to remain unnoticed.

Naruto could also tell that his school's team won at the end because the squeals about how awesome Sasuke was seemed to multiply ten fold and Sasuke would always let an excited word slip past his usually very silent lips.


	8. crowd passes by

"So is your girl here?" Kiba asked as the team readied themselves to tell the other team that it had been a good game.

"I told you already," Sasuke said. "I don't have a girl."

"What is wrong with you man?" Kiba said. "You totally need to make a move on this chick or she might not wait around for you."

"That coming from you," Sasuke said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kiba growled.

"You know exactly what I mean," Sasuke smirked as he nodded towards a particularly shy looking girl who was sitting near the front of the bleachers. He wasn't usually one to talk so casually even with his teammates, but there was always an exception after he won a game.

"You think she likes me?" Kiba asked.

Sasuke just shrugged. "You'll never know unless you try."

"I will!" Kiba said excitedly as he began to run towards the girl, "but then you have to confess to your girl."

"Hey! Wait!" Sasuke yelled after Kiba, but he didn't seem to hear. "I never agreed to that."

Sasuke looked at the bleachers and Naruto felt like he was looking straight at him, but he knew better. There was no way that Sasuke could see him through this crowd. He could barely see Sasuke and it was all because of where the boy was standing.

"Kiba!" Sasuke yelled a few minutes later.

"What!" Kiba yelled and Hinata giggled at him.

"Get over here and line up."

"Alright," Kiba sighed before turning back to Hinata. "See you tomorrow babe," he said. Hinata blushed but giggled and nodded anyway. Naruto felt envious of her. It seemed so unfair that she could have the man that she wanted, but he wasn't allowed to have the man that he wanted. But, he supposed, he must have deserved this. Kyuubi told him many times that men who like other men are disgusting and deserve to be punished. Maybe this was part of his punishment. Oh well. He was content in just standing still and watching Sasuke as he and the crowd continued to move toward the future. He was happy with the way his life was now and he would enjoy it until the end of school.

Everyone on the bleachers began to stand up and leave as the team said their goodbyes to the other team there was no point for anyone but the girls to stay and the girls only stayed so that they could ogle at the team. As the crowd began to leave the football field, Naruto was finally able to see Sasuke. He was sweating, but Naruto still thought he looked handsome with his barely visible grin. No one else probably noticed it, but Naruto had become accustomed to reading all of Sasuke's emotions. He knew that was probably really creepy, but he couldn't help himself. Sasuke was his addiction. Watching Sasuke and getting to know him from afar was the only thing that seemed to make Naruto happy. He knew that sounded weird and he had no clue why he loved to watch Sasuke so much. It probably started with Naruto wanting to live vicariously through Sasuke, but as time continued to move on, he realized that his feelings were deeper than just that and he didn't care in the slightest. His brother did, but he didn't. This was the one thing that he was willing to disobey his brother for.

"Oh no!" gasped a girl not so far away from Naruto. She had naturally blonde hair and blue eyes adorned her face. "I dropped my wallet and I think it went under the bleachers."

Naruto cursed. That meant that she was going to have to come under the bleachers to get it. He couldn't risk anyone finding his secret hiding place.

"Don't worry Ino," Sasuke said. He must have heard her complaining about it from the bench and wanted to help her. Naruto had to wonder if Ino was the one that Sasuke admired. "I'll get it for you."

Naruto cursed even more. Of all the people that could possibly find him under the bleachers, he did not want Sasuke to be the one. He would never be able to live it down if Sasuke found out what he had been doing over the past few years.

"Really Sasuke-kun!" Ino squealed. "Thank you so much!"

"Your welcome," Sasuke said.

Naruto saw Sasuke move towards the edge of the bleachers to head to the back and immediately ran out the other side, hoping that no one saw him.


	9. pretend to be busy

The next day Naruto returned to school to find that the rumor of Ino being Sasuke's secret crush already circulating around campus. It kind of hurt Naruto to finally know whom Sasuke liked. He was perfectly content with pretending that he was the secret crush. Not that that would ever happen.

He entered he first period class to find a group of girls crowding around Ino who had moved from her regular seat to the one next to where Sasuke usually sat. All of them were pretending to be her best friend but Naruto could tell that they were just trying to use her to get to Sasuke. They probably hoped that one day Sasuke would realize that Ino wasn't the right girl for him and would suddenly move onto one of her "friends" who had been secretly flirting with him the whole time. Naruto highly doubted that would happen. Sasuke just didn't seem like the type of guy to dump a girl to go onto one of her best friends. In fact, Sasuke seemed like the type of guy who would pick one girl and love her for the rest of her life.

When Sasuke entered the room, Naruto looked away and pretended to be busy with his math homework. He didn't want Sasuke to think that he had been prying in on Sasuke's personal life.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"I wanted to sit next to you," Ino said as she batted her eyes flirtatiously.

"We have assigned seats," Sasuke answered. "You can't just move whenever you feel like it."

"Oh I'm sure the teacher won't mind," Ino sighed. "She wouldn't want to get in the way of true love."

"Excuse me?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"The teacher wouldn't want to split up two people who love each other as much as we do," Ino said.

"Who said that I loved you?" Sasuke growled. Naruto thought that for a moment Sasuke looked up at him, but he didn't want to get involved so he just continued to pretend to work.

"But," Ino tried to say. "You got me my wallet."

"I was just being nice," Sasuke growled.

"I have blonde hair," Ino pointed to her long locks of blonde hair.

"So?" Sasuke asked.

"You said that the girl you loved had blonde hair," she said.

"I never said that," Sasuke growled. "That was Kiba."

"But I'm everything that you could ever want in a woman," Ino whined.

"You're annoying," Sasuke said. "I don't want you. I just helped you get your wallet. If I had known that you would take it so far out of proportion I wouldn't have gotten it for you at all."

"But Sasuke-kun," Ino cried. "I love you."

"Go back to your seat already," Sasuke growled as all of the other girls got their hope of winning Sasuke's heart back up, "and leave me alone."

Naruto couldn't help but to allow the smallest of smiles to creep onto his face. He felt horrible for being happy about Ino's embarrassment, but he was too overjoyed about Sasuke still being single to even care about that.

Ino went back to her rightful seat with tears falling from her eyes, but Naruto couldn't really make himself care about that. For a moment he thought he saw Sasuke looking at him again, but he must have been wrong because there was no way that Sasuke Uchiha would ever look at him. He smiled anyway because, even though his brother had given him quite a nasty beating the day before, he couldn't help but feel that this day was going to be a good day since Sasuke was still single. Not even the pain of a bruised rib was going to take that happiness away from Naruto. At least not until he finally figured out who Sasuke's real crush was.**  
**


	10. want to cry

During lunch Naruto sat at his normal seat next to Sasuke's table. His brother decided that he wasn't allowed to eat that day so he was at his table before anyone else. He watched quietly as people slowly filed into the atrium to take their seats as near to Sasuke as they possibly could. Sasuke was one of the first people to sit down. Someone else was probably getting his food for him. Naruto was surprised to see Ino sit right next to Sasuke. After that embarrassing event during first period, he thought that Ino would leave Sasuke alone for at least a day. He knew that the fan girl wouldn't be able to abandon her hope of making Sasuke fall in love with her, but Naruto thought that she would at least leave him alone for a day or two.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke growled at the girl who sat next to him.

"Oh Sasuke-kun," Ino leaned over so that she could whisper into his ear, but she was so loud that Naruto could hear every word that came out of her mouth. "I know that you don't want anyone to know that you love me. I understand that you don't want our love to affect your football and your grades, but we can still be together in secret. I promise not to tell anyone."

Naruto felt like he wanted to cry. He believed that Sasuke was telling the truth about not loving Ino in first period, but her constant talk about him loving her made Naruto think about what would happen when Sasuke finally did admit his love to whoever he wanted to be with for the rest of his life. Every time Ino talked about Sasuke's nonexistent love for her always reminded him of the feeling of painful unrequited love.**  
**


	11. look at his life

Naruto sighed as he slipped under the bleachers. Today was an off campus game, but that didn't stop the coach from making his teammates stay at the school until the very last moment before they absolutely had to leave. Sometimes Naruto wondered if the coach knew that him keeping his team at the school could actually lessen their ability to perform well. Not even Sasuke could perform at his full capacity when he didn't get enough rest. Naruto always knew when Sasuke wasn't sleeping well because he would be just that little bit slower or just that little bit off the mark. No one else noticed because it was such a slight difference that it didn't really affect the game. Naruto did though. He always noticed, which actually brought him back to the reason that he was sighing and made him sigh again.

Naruto was finally getting tired of pining for a person that he'd never have. He would always love Sasuke, that fact was unchanged, but sometimes he just wished that Sasuke would look at him. Sometimes he wished the Sasuke wouldn't look right past him like he was invisible. Well, he was kind of invisible. If it weren't for his somewhat weird appearance and behavior, he would probably be totally unnoticed by everyone. He wasn't sure if that would have been better or worse. By the way he felt every time that Sasuke acted like he wasn't there, he knew he'd feel worse. Though, being invisible would definitely be a benefit when he was at home. If he could only be mister invisible, and do all his chores just right, then Kyuubi wouldn't get mad at him all the time and he wouldn't get all these scars and wounds that made him stand out so much at school.

Naruto sighed once again as he touched the scars on his cheeks. Kyuubi gave them to him when their parents died. They had both been rather young, but Kyuubi had gotten tired of his constant crying and had attacked him. Now, Naruto knew, it was much too late to be invisible because those scars stuck out wherever he went. Most people assumed that he either got in a fight of did it to himself and they would just tsk him and walk away. The students, though, always made every attempt to make fun of his scars no matter where he went. Why was it that everyone always noticed him, but to Sasuke he was just Mr. Invisible? Why couldn't Sasuke just look at him and actually see him?


	12. in his shoes

When school was finally over, Naruto walked home silently. It was a slow process since someone had tripped him earlier in the day and now he was limping home. He also wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing Kyuubi. The man would probably get mad at him for being late again, but he didn't really care. He was willing to take a little abuse, just so that he could spend the rest of his days at school. That's right, the rest of his days. Today had been an extremely tough day and it was just another reminder as to why he really didn't want to live anymore.

Naruto didn't have suicidal thoughts often, he wanted to live a long and happy life more than he wanted to end the suffering, but it was days like this that made the thought enter his mind. Once the thought was there, it usually took a week or two for him to dispel it once again. He could only hope that he wouldn't be in one of these stupors when he finally graduated, because all of his suicidal thoughts tended towards killing himself right after he walked up to get his diploma. Then he wouldn't have to go home and everyone would finally be able to see what they did to him.

On a regular basis, Naruto didn't want people to see how much pain he was in, but sometimes, sometimes, he just wished that they would take a moment to consider him. He wished that sometimes they would put themselves in his shoes and see everything that he had to deal with every day. Sometimes. But every time he wished this, he knew that no one would. No one cares about anyone but themselves. They'll do anything to make themselves happy, but they don't care how much pain they cause to others.

Normally Naruto wouldn't care either, he had gotten used to it a long time ago, but sometimes he did. Sometimes his emotions just could not be suppressed and he felt the weight of all the pain that he had suffered pressing down on his back. He wondered if anyone else knew what it felt like to be in so much pain. He always wondered, but he never asked. No one would care to listen to him anyway. So he remained silent and just thought about what they would think if they actually spent some time in his shoes. Would they feel sorry for him, stop picking on him, or would they find that as another weakness to taunt him about? Probably the latter.


	13. look at his face

Naruto looked at his reflection in the mirror in his bathroom quietly. His ugly face had yet another blemish on it. Kyuubi had decided that he needed to be punished for being late so he had given him another black eye along with a few other wounds that would be easily hidden under his clothes. Naruto sighed. This would give the students more reason to make fun of him. They always made fun of his face. They laughed at the scars that he had on his cheeks without even knowing what they were from. They all thought that the strange scars were either birthmarks or had been inflicted during some sort of freak accident, but if they looked closer they would see that the wounds were very deliberate. None of the students ever bothered to look closer though. They only took the time to look at his face for enough to make fun of him with. Even that sometimes didn't even happen.

Sometimes Naruto just wished that they would take another look at his face. If they would just do that, then maybe they wouldn't find him so disgusting to them. Maybe they would see that he wasn't a bad person. Maybe they would see that he was just a boy who loved to smile but was always forced to cry.

Naruto growled at his own reflection and punched the mirror. It shattered and several pieces clattered into the sink. Naruto smiled at that. He didn't want to look at his face anymore. If the students couldn't look at his face without seeing something disgusting, then why should he? He could still see his reflection in the pieces, but they were so shattered that there was never a clear view of his face. Now he wouldn't have a to look at his face again.

There was a particularly large shard in the middle of the sink and Naruto grabbed it. The edges cut into his fingers, but he held onto it nonetheless. Maybe he could just end it now and be done with it. He didn't need to graduate. What would be the point of graduating if he was just going to kill himself right after that? He could just do the deed right now. Then all of his suffering end and he might finally be able to smile honestly again.

No. Naruto shook his head. He wouldn't do that. He didn't want to do that. If he could just last until graduation, he could move out. He could move far away from Kyuubi and all of the rest of the students that hurt him on a daily basis.

But would Kyuubi even let him leave? Would he allow him to move out and loose the only person he was able to control? Naruto didn't think he would be allowed to leave even after graduation. He would be trapped here with his brother for the rest of his life. That wasn't a life to look forward to. If he just ended it all now, he wouldn't have to spend all of his time at school waiting to graduate so he could spend the rest of his life trapped in the house with his brother beating him.

Naruto dropped the shard back in the sink and ran out of the room. When Kyuubi saw the broken mirror, he would not be happy with Naruto, but Naruto couldn't stay in the same room with those sharp pieces of glass just asking him to use them in the worst of ways. He didn't want to do that so he buried himself under his covers where he would stay until the next morning where everyone would be forced to look at his ugly face again.


	14. look harder and you will see

Kyuubi found the shards of the mirror in the bathroom and he was not happy. He pulled Naruto out of his bed by his hair the next morning and dragged him to the bathroom. "Look!" he screamed. "What is that?"

"I'm sorry," Naruto whimpered. "I was going to clean it up later."

"Later!" Kyuubi screamed. "Later is not good enough, you dirty, rotten, little nobody. You're going to clean it up now!"

"I have to go to school!" Naruto cried out.

"I don't care!" Kyuubi screamed right back as he pulled Naruto's head back so that Naruto was standing in a painful position. "Nobody wants you there anyway. You're so stupid and you just get in the way. You can't even clean up a simple mess like this. You're useless. You're useless to me. You're useless to the school. You were even useless to mom and dad." Naruto's eyes stung at that, but he remained quiet. He didn't want Kyuubi to be mad at him any more. "They hated you you know," Kyuubi continued. "You were just the accident. And then you went and killed them. You're a horrible son. You're a horrible person. You don't deserve to be alive." With that, Kyuubi pushed Naruto into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

Naruto landed on his hands and knees, but it was even more painful because there were glass shards all over the floor and they dug into every part of his skin that they could reach. He wasn't wearing shoes either, so when he tried to stand he just got more shards forced into his skin. Naruto turned and tried to open the bathroom door, but it was locked from the outside. "Please Kyuubi," he cried. "Please let me out of here."

"No way," Kyuubi growled from the other side of the door. "You clean up this mess and then maybe I'll consider letting you out. Although, all things considered, I should just leave you in there to rot."

"What about school?" Naruto asked frantically. Kyuubi laughed and Naruto listened as it grew quieter. Then he heard the front door slam shut and he knew that he was alone in the house. That's when he let his tears fall.

"Please," he sobbed into his knee. "Please come and save me. Somebody please save me. Please. Please. Don't leave me here any longer. Please." There had been a time, Naruto remembered, that the social services had come to check their living arrangements. It was a very long time ago, when Kyuubi was technically too young to take care of Naruto, but they had never seen anything wrong. They had only seen two boys grieving for the loss of their parents, but if they had looked closer they would have seen more. If only people would look closer, then maybe he could be saved from this awful place that he called home. "Please."


	15. wait for the day

Naruto had to wait a whole day, after cleaning the glass as well as he could without any cleaning material and bandaging up his wounds, for Kyuubi to come back to the bathroom and open the door with a scowl. "Where is my dinner you slacker?" Kyuubi growled.

"I-I couldn't make anything," Naruto stuttered back. "I was stuck in the bathroom."

"Well, just because you can't get yourself out of the bathroom, doesn't mean that I won't punish you," Kyuubi smirked. "I think that you're just going to have to miss dinner tonight."

"But Kyuubi-" Naruto began to protest, but he was silenced by a hard punch to the face.

"Shut up!" Kyuubi yelled. "No one wants to hear your annoying voice. It's grating on my nerves."

"I'm sorry Kyuubi," Naruto muttered. That earned him another punch to the stomach.

"I said shut up," Kyuubi hissed. Naruto didn't answer. He just continued to stare at the floor beneath him. "Hurry up and make my dinner before I increase your punishment."

Naruto nodded and quickly ran to the kitchen where he began making dinner for one. He could hear Kyuubi moving into the living room to watch TV and probably get completely drunk. Naruto could only pray that it would be a good day. A day where Kyuubi would get so wasted that he forgot that Naruto even existed. He knew that wasn't exactly considered a good day to most people. No. A good day would be one in which the older brother makes dinner for the two of them and then sits down and helps the younger through his homework. A good day would be one where the younger brother wasn't wincing with every step because there was still glass lodged in his feet from when he was trying to clean up the glass on the bathroom floor. A good day would be where he actually got to go to school and see all of his wonderful friends.

Naruto didn't know good days like that, at least not anymore, so he made due with the good days where his brother left him alone. He waited for those days on the bad days. They were few and far between, but Naruto would wait for them just the same because that's all he could do. The only thing he could do in this life was wait for a good day.**  
**


	16. ask for his name

"Hey sweetie," the school nurse said as Naruto limped into her office the next morning. "What can I do for you?"

"I-," Naruto began to say, but he was interrupted by the nurse's loud gasp.

"What happened to your face?" she asked as she leaned forward to examine the bruises that had formed over night.

"I got into a fight," Naruto fell back to his normal excuse, but the nurse's face fell to a scowl as he said them.

"Why do you boys always have to be fighting?" she muttered as she dug through the freezer in her office to get an ice pack.

"I'm sorry," Naruto answered quietly, "but that's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here then?" the nurse asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I broke a glass right now," Naruto said, "and I think I stepped on a piece of it when I was cleaning it up. I was just hoping you could help me."

"Fine," she sighed. "Let me see your foot then."

Naruto nodded and immediately sat down so that he could lift his foot to allow the nurse to see it. There was a small gash in the center of his foot and the nurse could just barely see a glittering piece of glass sticking out of it. It was only sticking out a little bit, but it was sticking out enough to allow the nurse to use a pair of tweezers to remove it. She did so quickly, without warning Naruto beforehand, and he winced as it left his foot.

"There you go," she said as she placed the shard on the desk next to her and pulled out some bandages to wrap around his foot. "Just be careful with it – that means no more fighting – and it should heal quite nicely."

"Yes ma'am," Naruto nodded as he put his shoes back on. "Thank you very much." He was almost out the door when the nurse called him back.

"Sweetie," she said and he turned cautiously.

"Yes ma'am?" he asked.

"This isn't from a glass," she picked up the shard, which was actually a lot bigger than she had originally expected, and showed the reflecting bit of it to Naruto.

"Oh," Naruto bit his lip. This was the first time that he got caught in a lie in such a long time that he couldn't quite remember how to cover up his mistake. He used to be able to do it all the time, but now no one really cared enough to look into anything that he said. He got careless, and now he was going to have to find a way to get out of the mess that he put himself into. "I accidently broke a mirror in my bathroom," he lied while he hid his bandaged hands behind his back so that she wouldn't be able to see them. Unfortunately, the fact that he hid them made her aware of them. She had originally thought that the bandages were because he got bruises from fighting, but now another thought was coming to her mind.

Suddenly the bell rang and Naruto wanted nothing more than to run to his class where he would probably be punished for being tardy. "If you'll excuse me," he said as he tried to make his way through the door once more, "but I really must get to class."

"Wait!" the nurse said. Thinking quickly, she pulled a pass out of her drawer and started writing the excuse as to why Naruto would be late to his next class, "If you'll just give me your name," she said calmly, "and I'll write you a pass so you won't get in trouble for being late."

"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto answered quietly. He wanted to get out of there. He didn't want to stay any longer and risk the nurse noticing something that no one before had noticed. Kyuubi wouldn't be happy with him if the nurse saw what was going on. Kyuubi would get mad and they'd have to move and he'd never get to see Sasuke ever again. He didn't want that. He just wanted to go to class and pretend that none of this was happening. He just wanted to go to class and pretend that he had friends, and a loving brother, and Sasuke as a boyfriend. He just wanted to be anywhere but in the nurse's office with a nurse who was staring at him sympathetically because she had probably seen something that no one else had seen before her.

After only a moment, the nurse pulled the note off of her desk and handed it to Naruto so that he could rush out of the room as quickly as he could with such an injured foot. She frowned as she watched him go. There was something in the way that he moved that confirmed her suspicion so she went around her desk and reached for the phone.

"Child Services," a young woman's voice sounded from the speaker, "how may I help you?"

"I'm a nurse at Konoha High School," the nurse responded, "and I think that one of the students here is being abused. I think that he might have been being abused for a long time now."

"Can you give me his name?" the woman on the other end asked.

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki."

* * *

This is the last of the prewritten chapter that I have. I'll post the rest as soon as I can. I hope you like it so far.


	17. the beginning

Naruto sighed as he made it to class and found the seat that he had been given in the first weeks of class. It wasn't a very good seat, but it did him well enough. Besides, it was in the back row in the darkest corner so no one could ever throw anything at him while he sat. He was grateful for the seat and he never once tried to get another one even though there were other empty seats near the front of the classroom that had more light that he could request. They were dangerous seats and he didn't want to take the chance.

He remembered being in the front of the room in the beginning when he first came to this school when Kyuubi forced him to move from his last one. He remembered having to introduce himself to all of the other students. He remembered trying to act happy around all the other students so that maybe they would take a liking to him. He remembered trying to act like the perfect student so that they teachers would be kinder to him. He remembered the first weeks of class.

* * *

"_Come in," the teacher called out when she heard someone knock on her door._

_Naruto opened the door and stepped in with a large grin. "Hey!" he said as excitedly as he could pretend to be, "I'm your new student!"_

"_Right," the woman scowled at him. "That's just great. Another one to annoy me." She glared at Naruto and he couldn't help but to shrink back and look around at all of the students just so he wouldn't have to look at her anymore. They weren't glaring at him, but what they were doing was much much worse. Most of the students were whispering with each other and laughing as they stole quick glances at him. They were making fun of him. About what he didn't know, but he could tell that they were making fun of him. _

_Naruto bit his lip as he scanned the room for anything, anything that would take his mind away from everything else, and his eyes landed on another boy in the classroom. The only one who was just looking at him. He wasn't participating in his friends' remarks, in fact Naruto was pretty sure that he was resolutely ignoring them, and he was just staring. It was the eyes that first caught Naruto's attention. On the outside they looked so cold and angry, but he could see more to them. There was something about the boy that was hidden to the rest of the student population. Something almost lonely. Naruto wished he could be like that boy, but he knew that would never happen so he turned back to the teacher as she told him to hurry up and introduce himself so that he could sit down and stop interrupting her class._

"_My name's Naruto Uzumaki," he said with a fake grin, "and some day I'm going to help people." He didn't know what he was going to be when he grew up, but he knew that it was going to be something that was going to help people. Maybe he'd be a fireman or a police officer._

_The class snorted and the teacher rolled her eyes before shooing him off to any available seat. He was quick to find one at the back of the room. He wanted to be noticed, but even he wouldn't take the hot front seat. He scanned the room once again and his eyes landed on the same boy as earlier. He wasn't staring at him anymore and he was now staring into space, but at least he was continuing not to make fun of him like the other students were continuing to do. _

_Naruto found out later, when the teacher called on that boy, that his name was Sasuke. From that day on he continued to watch Sasuke. He continued to watch until he realized that he was hopelessly in love with the man._

* * *

Naruto remembered those days and he hated them, but they weren't much worse than what he had to deal with now. He had stopped pretending to be so happy after those few weeks and had just shown his true colors, but none of it made a difference. He was still just a freak to all of them. They hated him.

* * *

Alright guys. I know that I promised to try to make these chapters longer, but I didn't want to force it and make it so that it didn't sound good so this is what I got. I'm sorry and I will try to make the next chapter longer, but I can't make any promises.


	18. trying to fit in

Naruto scribbled down the notes distractedly as he listened to his teacher talk. He didn't really care about whatever she was talking about. None of this information would do him any good in the future. His only job would be to be a good little servant when he graduated. The only reason the Kyuubi was allowing him to go to school was because he knew that it would look weird for Naruto to suddenly stop. Naruto took the many chances that he had been given at all the different schools to try to fit in. He also remembered trying everything that he could think of to get the other's attention. At first he tried to be smart.

* * *

"_That's correct Naruto," the teacher said. This new student was doing much better than her usual students, but she blamed that on the fact that he was coming from another school that probably already went through this material. There was no way that she was ever going to blame it on her generally horrible teaching ability. _

_The truth was that Naruto spent hours studying the night before so that he could know what in the world the lady was talking about. This was the fifth answer that he had eagerly raised his hand to answer correctly. He was only glad that he hadn't made a fool of himself by being so eager and then completely messing it up by saying something stupid. It was just a good thing that this wasn't math because no matter how long he studied, he never understood it._

"_What a nerd," Naruto heard one of the girls say._

"_Yea," another one replied. "He's totally trying to be the teacher's pet."_

"_There's no way that he'll ever beat Sasuke-kun in academics, though," yet another cut in. _

_Naruto wasn't trying to be better than anyone. He just wanted to be acknowledged. Was that really too much to ask for from his peers?_

* * *

Then, when that hadn't worked, he turned to being a class clown.

* * *

"_Naruto!" screamed a very wet, very angry teacher as the whole room laughed. Naruto had placed a bucket full of water on top of the door for the teacher to be hit by when she came in late like she always did. He was much better at being a clown than he was at being smart. At least when he was a clown he got to paint on a happy face no matter how he was feeling at the time._

_Naruto got a detention that day, but none of that mattered because he finally got the class to laugh with him instead of at him. At least that's what he told himself every time that he pulled out another one of his perfect pranks. The only problem was that they continued to laugh even when he stopped._

"_He's so stupid," Naruto overheard a group of people saying. _

"_Yea," someone else laughed. "He's such an idiot."_

* * *

When he gave up on that, there was only one thing left that he could do. He had tried always being smart and he had tried always being happy, but neither of those worked. Now the only thing that he had left to try was being invisible. But still that didn't work. It almost seemed to make the insults even worse. They noticed that he was starting to retreat into himself so they made fun of him more knowing that they would be able to get away with it since he wouldn't go to anyone for help. Naruto was never able to make any friends after all.

He tried everything to try to fit in, but that didn't work so he could only disappear. The only problem was that he could never fully disappear. Kyuubi would get mad at him if he asked to change schools again. Kyuubi had already had to fill out the paperwork for an exchange several times. Usually it was because he got expelled from the school for fighting when he never really had a fight in the first place. It always made Kyuubi mad when he had to fill all the stuff out. Naruto would always be locked in his room with only one meal a day until Kyuubi was able to find somewhere else for him to go. He did not want to ask for that to happen again.

The only place that he felt that he could be completely invisible was under the bleachers in the football stadium, but he could only go there after school and only for short periods of time since Kyuubi would expect him home.

Naruto was just never able to fit in with the others. It was just impossible for him. He didn't know why, but they all just hated him. He must have done something truly horrible for them all to hate him so much. It wouldn't surprise him. He probably did do something bad. In fact, he did something bad every day if Kyuubi's punishments were anything to go by.

"Naruto," the teacher hissed angrily and Naruto could hear the whole class, except for Sasuke because Sasuke never joined in with the class, laughing at him. "What in the world could be more interesting than my lesson?"

"Nothing ma'am," Naruto mumbled.

"Then what were you doing spacing out just now?" she glared at him.

Naruto wanted to lash out. He wanted to get all the pain that he had bottled up all of these years and let it out on the teacher. He wanted to say that he had said that even nothing was more important than her lesson. He wanted to insult some one else and have everyone laugh at someone else for a change. But Naruto wasn't that kind of person so instead he apologized.

The teacher gave him one last dirty look before turning back to her teaching. Naruto looked around at the rest of the room to see them all snickering. They were laughing at him. They were always laughing at him. Why couldn't they just like him for a change? Why couldn't he fit in with everyone else?


	19. mismatching surface

He knew why he couldn't fit in. It's because he was different from everyone else. He didn't match everyone's ideal of a cool person. He didn't match everyone's ideal of an idiot. He didn't match everyone's ideal as a teenager. He just didn't match. And, not only did he not match what the people thought he should be, he didn't match what he actually was. He smiled when his eyes wanted to cry. He stood straight when he just wanted to bend over in pain. He screamed for attention when he just wanted to disappear completely. He wasn't being himself and none of the other students could get over that fact.

Of course they would never truly understand what they were seeing in those bright blue eyes when they laughed at him. They would never know about what his life has been like. They would never know how he got the scars that he now bares on his cheeks as they point and laugh at the flaws. They would never understand, but they could see that something was wrong. They could see that his eyes were lifeless when he grinned at them. They could see the fear that grew in him as they taunted him. And they could see him shy away from attention even as he fought for it.

It made him weird. Different. He wasn't the only one in the entire school who wasn't true to themselves, everyone lies in some way or another, but they saw it clearly in him. They could point out all of his flaws and laugh so that no one would see their own. He was an easy target because he could match everyone else. He was too broken. His whole life had crumbled when he was only a child and he was still unable to put the pieces back together in the right way so they could all see through the spaces left by the mismatched edges.

It's only human nature for people to try to destroy what they can't understand. And the people at the school didn't understand Naruto. They didn't try to understand him. They didn't try to pull away the messed up pieces and look on the inside to find a boy crying and wishing for death just so that he could get away from them. Get away from all the taunting. The laughing. The pain. He wanted to die just to get away from his brother. But they would never see that because they never bothered to actually look through the open crevices of the messed up puzzle to see what it was hiding.

"Oh my god," a whispering voice laughed just in front of him. "Did you see that?"

"Totally," another giggled. "He's such an idiot."

"I kind of wish he wasn't in our class," said yet another. "Then he wouldn't always be distracting us from our work with his stupidity."

"Oh come on. I think it's better this way. He's an annoying idiot, but at least he distracts the teachers so we don't have to do work."

"I don't even know if that's worth it. To have to listen to him all the time."

"I guess that's true."

But they would never try to understand him because it was just easier to laugh at him from a distance.

* * *

This day was a lot harder for Naruto. His feet hurt from getting glass in them so he had to limp almost all day and his face hurt like hell, but he managed to smile and play it off. He told people that they should see the other guy even though none of them really asked him. He knew he was trying a little too hard. He hadn't acted up so much in a really long time, but the pieces of his puzzle were slowly falling apart and he had to scramble to put them back together so he was having a hard time acting off all of his pain.

All of the people that he regaled with his epic fight just laughed and said that he was probably lying to them and that the other guy was probably completely unharmed. They weren't exactly incorrect, but Naruto could hear the taunts in their voice. They didn't think he was strong. There was once a time that that would have bothered him, and there was once a time that he would have pretended it bothered him, but each word stung and shook him so much that more pieces of his mask fell away until his smile was only just holding back the tears that wanted to spill down his face.

He wouldn't be able to take much more of this. If he was revealed, if all of the pieces finally fell away, and the students continued to make fun of him, he knew that he would not be staying. He wouldn't be staying in this school. He wouldn't be staying in this town. He wouldn't be staying in this world. And he most certainly wouldn't be staying in his life. This wasn't like his normal depressions, he knew. If this got out of hand, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from doing the deed that he had so often thought about doing. He wouldn't be able to put it off until after graduation anymore. And he probably wouldn't even try. Because he knew that it would be much harder to put the puzzle back together once everything had finally fallen away. To him, even a mismatched puzzle was better then a pile of pieces sitting at his feet while people laughed at what was hidden just behind.


	20. closed eyes

Hey guys. This is just a quick author's note for all of my guest reviewers. I don't like to reply to specific reviews on my stories unless they're questions, but I just wanted to let you all know that I absolutely love you and adore all of the comments that you've been giving me. Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

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But the people continued to laugh despite his best attempts to stop them. He tripped on his way to third period and they laughed. He got a question wrong so the teacher scolded him for not paying attention in fifth period and they laughed. Some kid knocked his food out of his hands and onto his shirt and they laughed. He got yet another detention for something that he didn't do and they laughed.

He couldn't look at them anymore. He couldn't stand to see their smiles as they continued to laugh at him. Their enjoyment at his expense. He couldn't look at it anymore so he closed his eyes.

Naruto's smile got wider and wider with everything that the others laughed at him for. The more he smiled, the more his eyes closed. He was hiding the pain in his eyes by a grin so wide that his eyes were couldn't open any further than just enough for him to see where he was going. They laughed at him for that too, but he didn't care. As long as he couldn't see their faces, it would all be fine.

But it wasn't. Having his eyes shut almost made it worse. He already had very good hearing, but his deprivation of his sight was leading to his hearing getting slightly better. The laughter got louder in his ears and it seemed to echo in his head until he could barely hear anything else.

The only other thing that seemed to be just as loud as the laughter was the whispers. Whenever he passed, the students were whisper among themselves and Naruto couldn't help but wonder what they were saying about him. He knew that most of the whispers probably had nothing to do with him, but years of being made fun of has taught his mind that he is always the butt of everyone's joke. Even though he knows that they probably aren't making fun of him, his mind still whispers about what they could be saying. Maybe his shoes are untied. Maybe his hair is a little too messy. Maybe he missed a button on his shirt. Maybe they don't like his smile. There's always something though.

At least when people laughed he knew what they were laughing at him for. Well, most of the time. Sometimes they would laugh after their whispers and it would be so loud that it gave Naruto headaches. Those were the worst laughs because he couldn't do anything about them.

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Finally, _finally, _the end of the day rolls around and Naruto can slip away from the school and head straight for the bleachers where he lets his stupid smile drop from his face immediately. He hates that smile anyway. Sometimes he wishes that he could just leave it right there behind the bleachers. Maybe if he were braver, he would be able to crush the smile into the ground and allow himself to walk out from behind the bleachers with his true emotions showing quite clearly on his face.

But Naruto would never do that. He was afraid to do that. What if they still laughed at him? He wouldn't be able to last with his true face if they still made fun of him.

"Oh come on Sasuke," Kiba laughed as he followed Sasuke out onto the field. Naruto winced at the sound. Kiba's laugh was a particularly loud one and, although Naruto had never heard the boy actually make fun of him, hearing it always made him self conscious that maybe he was doing something stupid again.

Maybe they saw him.

"Would you shut up about that already?" Sasuke hissed. Now he really wished that he had stayed in the locker room and waited for the others to finish getting ready before he made his way out to the field. At least if he had done that, he would be able to change the subject to the actual team.

"Did you see his face, though?" Kiba laughed. Now Naruto knew the boy must be talking about him. I mean, who else's face was worthless enough to be laughed at.

Sasuke couldn't hold back the short chuckle that escaped his throat and Naruto felt his heart stop. Never before had he ever heard Sasuke laugh or chuckle or anything in between and the first time he hears it is at his expense. He has to bit back a pained whimper as his chest constricts at the thought of Sasuke laughing at him. Sasuke was just like everyone else. Sasuke was laughing at him.

Suddenly, Naruto couldn't breathe anymore. Sasuke was laughing at him. He gripped his shirt above his heart and held on as tightly as he could. Sasuke was laughing at him. His other hand entwined with the dirt and ripped up what little grass was growing there. Sasuke was laughing at him. He bent over and put his head between his knees in an attempt to regain a good breathing pattern. Sasuke was laughing at him. Naruto closed his eyes; finally resigned to the fact that everyone would always make fun of him.

"See," Kiba said. "Even you thought it was funny."

"I don't care," Sasuke replaced his stern look as he remembered exactly why he had brought Kiba out here earlier than the rest of the team. "You aren't supposed to towel whip people in the locker rooms. Take ten laps."

Naruto's head shot up as he heard the true reason for their laughs. They weren't laughing at him after all. He had just been jumping to conclusions. They weren't making fun of him after all.

"Oh come on!" Kiba whined.

"Now," Sasuke demanded and Kiba took off.

Naruto couldn't help the true smile that slipped on his face because, even though Sasuke had probably made fun of him when he hadn't been there to overhear it, he could still maintain the stupid belief that maybe Sasuke didn't actually want to make fun of him.

Sasuke moved to the bleachers to sit down and watch his teammate undergo his punishment with a smile. He wouldn't admit that his other teammate's face had been absolutely hilarious when Kiba towel whipped him, but there was something else that was really making him smile. Something that he would be keeping a secret from the others.


End file.
